Make This School Year Amazing! Inspiration by Joel Wagner - July 27, 2012May 28, 20160 How is this year going to be different from every other year you've taught before? Do you have a specific plan to ensure that it will be? Here's a simple suggestion that I aim to implement in my own teaching this year. Ready? Plan Each Sunday, I am going to think about what has happened in recent weeks and identify one weak area that needs to be addressed. It doesn't have to be the biggest problem area. In fact, sometimes targeting a seemingly insignificant problem that I know I can rectify helps me gain confidence to attack the bigger, more ominous ones later on. Perhaps I can tackle one specific element of a larger problem area. The whole "one bite at a
Planning for Technical Difficulties: Knowing Your Backup Options Blogging & Technology by Maria Rainier - January 10, 2011May 30, 20161 Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, where recently she’s been researching different physical therapy assistant schools and blogging about student life. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop. If your school is like a lot of institutions these days, you have to share resources and probably don’t have much in the way of educational technology. So when you get to spend time in the computer lab or use the interactive whiteboard, it’s usually well-planned and eagerly anticipated. However, if you’ve been teaching long enough to lose greenhorn status, you know about the scourge of the lab – technological failure. Even with the best
137 Tech Resources For Teachers and Students General by Joel Wagner - May 21, 2010June 30, 20100 Back in March of 2009, I received my first guest post submission from Karen Schweitzer entitled 50 Online Reference Sites for Teachers. At the time, she was barely building her online portfolio by sending out guest posts to edublog across the web. As best as I can tell, So You Want To Teach? was one of the first blogs she submitted articles for. As soon as the article went live, it quickly became one of the most popular pages on the entire blog. In fact, that article alone received some 275 views the first three weeks it was up. At the time, that was huge. For comparison, 14 months later, I posted a guest article 8 Teachers Who Changed History
Sometimes Quitting Is The Best Thing You Can Do! Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - February 2, 2009June 30, 20100 I am featured as a guest blogger over at I Want To Teach Forever as a part of his 52 Teachers, 52 Lessons project. I recommend going over there, reading the article, and adding some comments. Sometimes Quitting Is The Best Thing You Can Do!Quitters never win? Au contraireThe old school adage is that quitters never win. Unfortunately, that trite saying is too simplistic. Sometimes quitters are the only ones who win. Consider these examples:In an auction, the one who doesn't quit often ends up with an overpriced item.The boy who doesn't quit pursuing an uninterested girl often wastes a lot of time, burns bridges, misses out on other opportunities, and alienates the girl and her friends in theprocess.In Vegas, the woman
The Loneliest Articles of 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 24, 2008July 1, 20101 In the Christmas break, I am looking back at this blog’s growth and development. I did this last year and it helped some of the newer readers to catch some of the things they missed out on. I know that since the year started with around 125 subscribers and is ending with around 600, many of you haven't gone in and dug through the archives. These year-end summaries will help you out a little bit! As I look through the blog’s archive, it strikes me that there are some articles that have either been buried deep in the archives, or for whatever reason, have gone unnoticed by my readers. So I am giving all of those articles a chance to
Are Classroom Rules Needed? Classroom Management by Dr. Pezz - July 26, 2008July 8, 201618 Thanks to Joel for allowing me this opportunity to post an article on his excellent site! In my short time as a blogger I have written a few posts which have elicited quite a few e-mails, These include posts about the fish bowl lesson, how teachers may create student failures, and ideas about teaching denotation and connotation. However, my post regarding the need for classroom rules has brought in more e-mails than any other. I actually ran a small in-service at my school for some of the new teachers about why I don't have classroom rules, and I think a couple were shocked that rules may not be necessary. This may sound overly simple, but I tell my (high school) students that
The Blog Revolution: Day 5 – Stay On Target! Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - May 9, 2008July 2, 20100 As we continue the Blog Revolution Project, we come to the final day of our focus on writing. Today's article will focus on keeping your blog focused. One of the main reasons I unsubscribe from a blog is that the content changes from day to day, and things aren't what I expected they would be. This comes when the blogger doesn't have a specified topic of concentration. Another advantage to focusing your blog is that you will convert more of the search engine referrals into regular readers. One of the coolest features of WordPress.com and WordPress.org software is the "Related Posts" type plugins or features that can be added. These add links at the end of the post to allow
The Blog Revolution Begins Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - May 1, 2008July 2, 201015 So what exactly is The Blog Revolution? We'll start with some background. I am a nerd. I am a huge nerd. I was co-president of the computer club in high school, went to the Texas State programming competition. I know a thing or two about computers. I have been reading blogs for the past year and a half. I've been reading blogs about blogging for the past year and three months. I began blogging about the same time. I began blogging regularly in June of 2007. As I got into the EduBlogosphere, I noticed a few things about a lot of smaller blogs. Many don't do a lot of the things that bloggers tend to recommend for growth Many
Weekend Wrapup 08/13/07 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - August 13, 2007July 5, 20102 Another week begins. Now that Summer Band is in full swing, I am reminded how difficult and full my schedule is during the fall. My blogging will come when it comes. :) Now on with the wrapup... CaliforniaTeacherGuy has accepted a position in Small Desert Town. He recently received a letter from the superintendent. One of the huge advantages to a small district is that the administration is more involved. I once interviewed in a district where the principal taught history, and the superintendent taught math. He actually came into the interview when he reached a break from mowing the football field! If you get in today or early tomorrow, My Education Junction has a contest. I realize that by
8 Steps To Building A Better Blog Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - July 15, 2007July 5, 20102 This really has nothing to do with education. I wanted to take a chance to stop and address some things that happened this week in my life and the life of this blog. Every day in the past week except for Tuesday, So You Want To Teach? saw more than 50 visitors. It's not like that constitutes a high-traffic blog or anything, but I see healthy, steady growth and want to look at some of the things that I have done to see this growth. Add content I started the blog in February, but only posted three articles a month until we got to the last week of May. Those articles are pretty good and help to form the